The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1887-11-09
POPULAR SCIENCE.

Or. Buisson, of Paris, claims 70 eure
Aydrophobia by hot baths often repeated.
He makes the patient remain continually
in a hot room, and the baths are made as
hot as 142 degrees.
Mr.. T. P. White asserts that the salts
formed by fruit acids and tin are harm
less, and that poisoning by canned fruits
must be due to solder or other lmpurl-
ties-arsenic, copper or lead.
A third crystalline form of carbon has
been discovered in metcoric iron from
Western Australia The mineral. which
is to be called Cliftonite, resembles the
diamond in the shape of its crystals, but
in color and other respects it is more
like graphite.
Tomatoes raised in light, rather poor
soil, in q sheltered or warm situation, are
always sweet in favorable seasons, while
those raised in rich soil or in partial
shade arc always sour. A rank growth
of foliage shades the fruit densely, and
interfercs with the development of the
,saccharinc principle. Again, tomatoes
raised in poorish, light soil ripen earlier
than those raised IN rich soil. :
A patented weather prognosticator
sold in Prague is landscape covered
with the salts of cobalt. These colors
are very sensitive to moisare, and are
made still more so by mixture with gela-
tine. With increasing moisture in the
atmosphere, the blue heavens of the pict-
ure assumed dirty rcd hue, and the
green grass and foliage, the yellow back
ground, etc., are also strikingly changed
lin color. --
According to one OF the French chem
,ical journals, plant belonging to the
lettuce tribe, technically known as
'soachus oleraceus, and common on the
wayside and among dry rubbish heaps
in France, has been found to yield, in
fair proportion, a very good quality OF
caoutchouc. To this end the plants are
stepped in carbon bisulphide, and after
ward boiled in alcohol and caustic potash.
About 43 per cent. of the weight is thus
obtained as caoutchouc. .
DR.. Brown-Sequard has just read re-
markable paper before the French Acad.
emy of Sciences on the movements of the
muscles after death. Many psychologists
believe that these post-mortem move
ments are due t. atmospheric causes.
DR.. Sequard controverts this, although
he does not deny that they may be par.
TALLY brought on by variations OF the
temperature. He argues that the real
cause of such movements is to be sought
in the vitality of the muscles, which re-.
mains in a dead body sometimes forty.
five hours after death. ~.
The extensive subsidences at North.
wich, England, according to MIR.
Thomas Ward, have no other cause than
the pumping of brine for the manufacture
of white salt. The upper bed of salt lies
beneath about fifty yards of mari; the
lower bed, separated from the first by
ten yards of mari, is over thirty yards
thick. The sinking was first noticed
about ITO, a century after the first dis.
covery of salt, and has progressed rapidly
since. Much property has been de.
stroyed, and large lakes have been formed
ono having an area of 100 acres and all
depths up to forty-fivc feet.
A white squall IS one which produces
no diminution of light. This furious
and dangerous gust appears in clea1
weather without any other warning than
the white foam it occasions on the sur
face of the sea and very thin haze. 1t
usually breaks upon vessel when she Is
totally unprepared for such a strain
upon her canvas, and consequently proves
one of the most dangerous foes of the
sailors existence. A black squall is fa1
less dangerous, as it is usually preceded
by an accumulation of dark clouds and
accompanied by heavy rain. Time is
thus given to trim sails and to avert
peril.